July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Choosing a side in his party’s
ideological battle, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie attacked
libertarian ideas on national security exemplified by U.S.
Senator Rand Paul, a possible opponent in the 2016 presidential
primary.

“I just want us to be really cautious of this strain of
libertarianism that is going through both parties right now and
making big headlines,” Christie, 50, said at a Republican
governor’s roundtable yesterday in Aspen, Colorado. “I think it
is a very dangerous thought.”

The comments gave an early glimpse of how Christie might
position himself in what’s likely to be a crowded Republican
primary in three years. The governor, who is enjoying high
approval ratings from his response to Hurricane Sandy as he
seeks a second term, has drawn criticism from some national
Republicans for praising President Barack Obama’s help after the
storm and scolding party members in Congress for aid delays.

“Sometimes there’s a mixture between the governor’s
politics and his gut reaction,” said Patrick Murray, director
of the West Long Branch, New Jersey-based Monmouth University
Polling Institute. “In that response you saw both,” he added.
“We saw the same thing with his embrace of President Obama
after Hurricane Sandy.”

Christie’s comments come as lawmakers in Washington from
both parties champion civil liberties and privacy in a debate
over anti-terrorism policies. Libertarianism is a political
philosophy whose proponents advocate for little or no government
involvement in peoples’ lives.

Senator Responds

U.S. lawmakers angry about domestic telephone record-collection this week lost an effort to curtail funding for the
intelligence-gathering tools revealed by fugitive U.S. security
contractor Edward Snowden. On a 205-217 vote, the House rejected
an amendment by Representative Justin Amash, a Michigan
Republican, that would have limited the National Security
Agency’s ability to collect phone records.

When asked yesterday if he was referring to Paul, Christie
said: “You can name any number of people who engage in” the
libertarian debates and “and he’s one of them.”

Paul, a Kentucky Republican who has accused the Obama
administration of trampling civil liberties, responded to
Christie on his Twitter account: “Christie worries about the
dangers of freedom,” the senator wrote. “I worry about the
danger of losing that freedom. Spying without warrants is
unconstitutional.”

‘Esoteric Debates’

Christie, on stage in Aspen with Louisiana Governor Bobby
Jindal, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Indiana Governor
Mike Pence, denounced what he called “esoteric debates” about
national security.

“We as a country need to decide, do we have amnesia?” he
said, adding that Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama put
in place stringent security policies after Sept. 11, 2001, and
didn’t change it because “it works.”

As a former U.S. prosecutor appointed by Bush on Sept. 10,
2001, Christie said he was particularly close to New Jersey
families affected by the terrorist attacks, with the state
claiming the second-highest total death toll.

“I love all these esoteric debates people are getting
in,” he said. “I want them to come to New Jersey and sit
across from the widows and the orphans and have that
conversation and they won’t, that’s a tough conversation to
have.”

Jersey Angle

Christie seized on Paul as “a serious symbol,” rather
than a looming 2016 challenger, representing a party faction
whose views on national security run counter to Christie’s
experience as a metropolitan New York City resident and federal
prosecutor after the 2001 attacks, said Julian Zelizer, a
professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.

“Part of his portfolio is he’s a Republican willing to
take on the Republican establishment,” Zelizer said by phone.
“Because he’s from the tri-state area, he also sent a clear
message that he is not going with the libertarian wing of the
Republican party on security, and hands-off government. He’s
going to be a hawk.”

Christie, who lives in the New York City suburb of Mendham
Township, has spoken about friends of his four children who lost
parents in the World Trade Center attack. He’s also recounted
his anxiety over the whereabouts that morning of his wife, Mary
Pat Christie, a Wall Street bond trader who was two blocks from
where the hijacked aircraft struck, and who couldn’t contact her
family to tell them she was safe until many hours later.

Charlie Cook, founder of the Cook Political Report, a
Washington-based nonpartisan newsletter on national
personalities and issues, said it was “extremely cynical” to
believe that Christie’s words in Aspen were driven purely by
ambition for national office.

“There is no doubt in my mind that as a tough former U.S.
attorney, particularly one becoming a prosecutor in New Jersey
immediately after 9/11, Christie strongly believes what he says,
and sees this as a dangerous turn on the part of many in his
party,” Cook said in an e-mail. “At the same time, it’s not
necessarily bad politics, either.”